Boundary Matching and Interior Connectivity-Based Cluster Validity Anlysis

The evaluation of clustering results plays an important role in clustering analysis. However, the existing validity indices are limited to a specific clustering algorithm, clustering parameter, and assumption in practice. In this paper, we propose a novel validity index to solve the above problems b...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Qi Li, Shihong Yue, Yaru Wang, Mingliang Ding, Jia Li, Zeying Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-02-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/4/1337
Description
Summary:The evaluation of clustering results plays an important role in clustering analysis. However, the existing validity indices are limited to a specific clustering algorithm, clustering parameter, and assumption in practice. In this paper, we propose a novel validity index to solve the above problems based on two complementary measures: boundary points matching and interior points connectivity. Firstly, when any clustering algorithm is performed on a dataset, we extract all boundary points for the dataset and its partitioned clusters using a nonparametric metric. The measure of boundary points matching is computed. Secondly, the interior points connectivity of both the dataset and all the partitioned clusters are measured. The proposed validity index can evaluate different clustering results on the dataset obtained from different clustering algorithms, which cannot be evaluated by the existing validity indices at all. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed validity index can evaluate clustering results obtained by using an arbitrary clustering algorithm and find the optimal clustering parameters.
ISSN:2076-3417